Cooking Up History

Cooking Up History



Every culture has its version of bread. "Eating it, one
feels that the taste one cannot quite put to words may almost
be the taste of history."* Children enjoy making this American
Indian fried bread.


What you'll need


2 1/2 cups all-purpose or wheat flour
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon dried skimmed milk powder
3/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Oil for frying

Mixing bowls and spoons, spatula
Large skillet
Cloth towels
Baking sheet
Paper towels

History log


What to do


1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder,
and salt.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the dried milk, water, and
vegetable oil.

3. Pour this liquid over the dry ingredients and stir
until the dough is smooth (1 or 2 minutes). Add 1
tablespoon of flour if the dough is too soft.

4. Knead the dough in the bowl with your hands about
30 seconds. Cover it with a cloth and let it sit 10
minutes.

5. Line the baking sheet with paper towels to receive the
finished loaves.

* From Edward Behr (see Acknowledgments).

6. Divide the dough into eight sections. Take one section and
keep the rest covered in the bowl.

7. Roll the dough into a ball and flatten with your hand.
Then roll it into a very thin circle 8 to 10 inches
across. The thinner the dough, the puffier the bread will
be.

8. Cover this circle with a cloth.

9. Continue with the other seven sections of dough in the
same way.

10. In the large frying pan or skillet, pour vegetable oil to
about 1 inch deep.

11. As you begin to roll the last piece of dough, turn on the
heat under the skillet. When the oil is hot, slip in a
circle of dough. Fry for about 1 minute or until the
bottom is golden brown. Reminder: Parental supervision is
necessary at all times around a hot stove.

12. Turn the dough over with tongs or a spatula. Fry the other
side for 1 minute.

13. Put the fried bread on the baking sheet and continue with
the other rounds of dough.

14. Eat your fried bread while it is hot and crisp. Put honey
on it if you like. Write in your history log what you
learned about this bread and others you have tried.







How is this bread different from other breads you have
tried? Think of common expressions that use the word "bread."
For example, "the nation's breadbasket"; "I earn my bread and
butter"; or "breadlines of the 1920s." What does "bread" mean
in each of these? What place does bread have in your daily life
and in other cultures?



Rub Against History



Younger children find rubbings great fun. Cornerstones and
plaques are interesting, and even coins will do.


What You'll Need


Tracing paper or other light weight paper
Large crayons with the paper removed, fat lead pencil, colored
pencils, or artist's charcoal
History log



What to do


1. Help your child make a kit to do rubbings. It could
include the items listed. The paper should not tear easily
but it should also be light enough so that the details of
what is traced become visible.

2. Have children make a rubbing of a quarter or half dollar.
Make the coin stable by supporting it with tape. Double
the tape so that it sticks on both sides and place it on
the bottom of the coin. Lay the paper on top of the coin,
and rub across it with a pencil, crayon, or charcoal.
Don't rub too hard. Rub until the coin's marks show up.

3. Go outside to do a rubbing. Look for

* Dates imprinted in cement sidewalks

* Cornerstones and plaques on buildings

* Decorative ironwork on buildings and lampposts

* Art and lettering on monuments and around doorways

4. Your child can ask family members to guess what each
rubbing is.

5. Have the children tell about each rubbing. Tell them to
look for designs and dates among the rubbings.

6. Children may want to cut some of their rubbings out to
include in their history logs. Or they can fit several on
one piece of paper to show a pattern of dates and designs.







What showed up in your rubbings? What did the date and
designs commemorate? Historical preservation groups in America
have worked to preserve old buildings and to install plaques on
public historical places. Is this interesting or important
work? Why have humans left their marks on the world from early
cave drawings to Vietnam Veterans' Memorial?


Activities: History as Time



Chronology


While our children need the opportunity to study events in
depth to get an understanding of them, they also need to know
the sequence of historical events in time, and the names and
places associated with them. Being able to place events in
time, your child is better able to learn the relationships
among them. What came first? What was cause, and what was
effect? Without a sense of chronological order, events seem
like a big jumble, and we can't understand what happened in the
past. It matters, for example, that our children know that the
American and French Revolutions are related.


Empathy


Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in the place of
another person and time. Since history is the reconstruction of
the past, we must have an idea of what it was like "to be
there" in order to reconstruct it with some accuracy. For
example, in studying the westward expansion your children may
ask why people didn't fly across the country to avoid the
hazards of exposure on stagecoach trails. When you answer that
the airplane hadn't yet been invented, they may ask why not.
They need an understanding of how technology develops and its
state at the time. Using original source documents, such as
diaries, logs, and speeches, helps us guard against imposing
the present on the past, and allows us to see events through
the eyes of people who were there.



Context


Context is related to empathy. Context means "weave
together" and refers to the set of circumstances in several
areas that framed an event. To understand any historical period
or event our children should know how to weave together
politics (how a society was ruled), sociology (what groups
formed the society), economics (how people worked and what they
produced), and religion, literature, the arts, and philosophy
(what was valued and believed at the time). When they try to
understand World War II, for example, they will uncover a
complex set of events. And they will find that these events
draw their meaning from their context.

History means having a grand old time with new stories.
So, think about the relationship between history and time as
you do the following activities.